DOME WRECKER: The weight from more than 17 inches of snow collapsed the roof at Mall of America Field in Minneapolis.AP

John Mara recalled some strange road trips over the years for the Giants but none quite like this.

“This one probably presented more challenges than I can ever remember,” the Giants co-owner said.

No kidding.

The Giants left New Jersey early on Saturday in order to beat a snowstorm headed to Minneapolis for their game yesterday afternoon with the Vikings. That seems like ancient history now. Instead, the Giants — never having set foot in the state of Minnesota — spent more than 24 hours in Kansas City and will finally get to play the Vikings tonight at 7:20 — only at Ford Field in Detroit.

The wild and crazy travel machinations left the Giants (8-4) eager to get on with the business of continuing their determined push to the playoffs.

“I think they’ve handled it very well,” Tom Coughlin said after the team made it to Detroit. “I think that the guys realized right away that it was out of our hands and really fully out of our control.”

The Giants’ flight Saturday morning left three hours early, attempting to beat the blizzard pounding the Twin Cities, but it was diverted to Kansas City when the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport was closed. The Giants expected to spend the night in Kansas City and make a hasty getaway yesterday morning, arriving just a few hours before their 1 p.m. EST kickoff. That plan was scrapped when concerns arose about all the snow on the roof of the Metrodome and the game was pushed back to Monday at 8 p.m.

At around 5 o’clock yesterday morning the Giants were informed a portion of the Metrodome’s Teflon-coated fiberglass roof collapsed from the weight of nearly 2 feet of snow and that the building would not be ready for football any time soon.

A new venue for the game was needed. Mara said he immediately suggested moving the game to New Meadowlands Stadium. After all, that’s what happened in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina forced the Saints to play a “home” game at Giants Stadium.

“I suggested that several times, but that didn’t get very far,” said Mara, chuckling.

Various alternate sites were explored. The University of Minnesota’s outdoor stadium was briefly in the discussion, but never a real option. Domed stadiums in Detroit, Indianapolis and New Orleans were considered and Detroit’s Ford Field was the choice of the NFL. That Fox Sports already had its crew and television equipment at Ford Field for yesterday’s Packers-Lions game was a major factor.

“Detroit seemed to be the most logical,” Mara said.

The game will be broadcast regionally on Fox in the New York, Albany and Minnesota markets and also available on DirecTV’s “NFL Sunday Ticket.”

It remains to be seen how all this hubbub will affect the Giants.

“I think that as our meetings begin here this evening shortly, I think our players will zoom back into the mental part of it,” Couglin said. “It’s back into the hands of something that we can do something about.”

They haven’t done much since landing in Kansas City on Saturday, basically sitting around their hotel, going to meetings, waiting for updates.

“They haven’t done anything physically. We were contemplating [yesterday] asking the Kansas City Chiefs if we could use their bubble — not that that has ever happened before, where one team has asked another to use their indoor practice facility,” said Mara, an obvious jab at the Jets complaining that the Giants allowed the Dolphins to use their practice facility this week.

Coughlin figured the players would get in some “vigorous exercise” at Ford Field before showering and getting ready for the game.

The Giants yesterday took off from Kansas City around 1:30 EST, despite a forecast of snow and wind in Detroit, and landed without incident.